It All Hangs on Love

Dear Family and Friends,

Welcome to Fall in Michigan! In San Diego, we would be enjoying the beach even more with the tourists mostly gone. Here, we are buying up all the warm layers we can find to prepare for winter.

We finished our first virtual mission tour with Elder Mark and Sister Angie Bassett last week. Some of you might remember them from when they were the mission leaders in the Arizona Mesa Mission (2007-2010). We learned so much and felt uplifted as a mission. We are now putting into practice all the things we learned!

As we prepare to watch General Conference soon, we have been thinking about how to feel the Spirit as we hear the words of the Lord's prophet and apostles and other Church leaders. Our hearts and minds keep returning to what we discussed in our Mission Tour regarding the two great commandments from Matthew 22:36-40 --

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all the soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

We might question is that really true? All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments? With all the information, materials, and resources that we have in our modern world, is this really the case? And the answer is yes. It all hangs on love.

If ye love me, keep my commandments.

He that loveth his brother abideth in the light.

Love your enemies.

The fruit of the Spirit is love.

Love God with all your might, mind and strength.

Charity is the pure love of Christ.

Teach them to love one another.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.

Every day in the mission, we see how intimately God is involved in the details of our lives and of His work. He wants us to be connected - to love Him and love one another. He reminds us of how we are spiritual brothers and sisters and have come to earth to help one another.

On Sunday, we had Kristen Sweeney as our special mission fireside guest, and she shared her vast knowledge and great enthusiasm about the Restoration and spoke of some of the wonderful things we can learn from the early days of the Restoration of Christ's New Testament Church. We all loved it!

Earlier this week, we were able to accompany some of our missionaries to the Detroit Temple to receive their own endowments. Due to the global pandemic, some of our missionaries could not go to the temples near their homes before they came to Michigan. With some of the restrictions being lifted, the Detroit Temple reopened for members to receive their own endowments. One of the sweet things is that with physical distancing, it has been just our missionaries, their companions, and any parents who can make it to Detroit in attendance.

One of our missionaries didn't have any family members who could be in the temple with her and asked permission if a friend could come to be with her. Due to her special circumstances, she received permission. She asked a friend who planned to come. Five days before we were scheduled to go to the temple, this friend found out she couldn't come to be with our missionary. The missionary asked if she could ask another friend. The answer was yes. But with the short notice, I was worried it wouldn't work out. Four days before we went to the temple, our missionary confirmed that her other friend, who had been her college roommate and instrumental in encouraging her to go on a mission, bought a plane ticket to be there! When we were soon to leave the temple, the friend said to me, "You have a missionary named Elder Meija in the Michigan Lansing Mission, don't you?" I told her yes, he was one of our great missionaries. Then she told me how she served a Spanish-speaking mission in the Illinois Chicago Mission from May 2017-December 2018 and taught Elder Meija, his sister, his mother, his other sister, and his brother-in-law, all of whom were baptized. I knew Elder Meija's conversion story, but I didn't know the names of his missionaries. After I expressed amazement at this wonderful connection, my mind got very quiet as I clearly saw the hand of the Lord in what was about to happen. I told this former missionary, "Elder Meija is going to be at the Detroit Temple in about 30 minutes with the new missionary he has been training and their other companion. If you wait a few minutes in the parking lot, you can see him." What a sweet reunion it was as they both pulled out their phones to show us all the same photos of Elder Meija's baptism day when she was the missionary. Of this reunion, she said, "The mission is the greatest thing. It just keeps on giving." All of our hearts and eyes were full.

On a more temporal note -- The worst bragging we've heard so far in Michigan? Of the terrible winters: "Oh, it's not so bad; it's not like we're Minnesota, North Dakota, or Montana!"

Signs of trouble ahead for this fair-weather couple:

Way too many "Bridge Ices Before Road" warning signs
Cold weather clothing at Costco we've never seen before
These long, orange sticks in our garage that we had no idea what they were or why we needed them. (You stick them in the ground before it freezes to line your driveway so that the snowplow doesn't plow you in. Yikes!)
About 32 degrees outside when we went out for morning exercise last week - saw a college-aged kid running in shorts and a t-shirt. We wore jackets, beanies, and gloves. Amy even had on her new long underwear.
Double doors and snow shovels everywhere
Heated blowers over all the store entrances and exits

We love you all,

President & Sister Heap

A Few Photos from Michigan and a Few from Home!